"Haven't you tried that?"
"Yes, but I wasn't looking for something specific like this. Look, just be careful going over. Don't take the BART tunnel. "
"You think the sewer harpies are in the BART tunnels?" Charlie asked.
"Sewer harpies? What's that?"
"It's what I call them," Charlie said.
"Oh. I don't know. It's underground, and I've been on a train when the power goes out. I don't think you want to risk it. It feels like their territory. Speaking of that, from my end they've been conspicuously silent for the last six months or so. Not a peep. "
"Yeah, the same here," Charlie said. "But I suppose this phone call might change that. "
"Yeah, it probably will. But with your daughter's condition, we might be in a whole new game, too. You watch your ass, Charlie Asher. "
"You, too, Minty. "
"Mr. Fre
sh. "
"I meant Mr. Fresh. "
"Good-bye, Charlie. "
In his cabin on the great ship, Orcus picked his teeth with the splintered femur of an infant. Babd combed his black mane with her claws as the bullheaded death pondered what the Morrigan had seen from the drain on Columbus Avenue: Charlie and Sophie in the park.
"It is time," said Nemain. "Haven't we waited long enough?" She clacked her claws like castanets, flinging drops of venom on the walls and floor.
"Would you be careful," Macha said. "That shit stains. I just put new carpet in here. "
Nemain stuck out a black tongue. "Washerwoman," she said.
"Whore," Macha replied.
"I don't like this," Orcus said. "This child disturbs me. "
"Nemain is right. Look how strong we've become," Babd said, stroking the webbing that was growing back between the spikes on Orcus's shoulders - it looked as if he had fans mounted there, like some ornate samurai armor. "Let us go. The child's sacrifice might give you your full wings back. "
"You think you can?"
"We can, once it's dark," said Macha. "We're stronger than we've been in a thousand years. "
"Just one of you go, and go in stealth," said Orcus. "Hers is a very old talent, even in this new body. If she masters it, our chance may have passed for another thousand years. Kill the child and bring its corpse to me. Don't let her see you until you strike. "
"And her father? Kill him?"
"You're not that strong. But if he wakes to find his child gone, then maybe his grief will destroy him. "
"You don't have any idea what you're doing, do you?" said Nemain.
"You stay here tonight," said Orcus.
"Dammit," said Nemain, slinging steaming venom across the wall. "Oh, pardon me for questioning the exalted one. Hey, head of the bull, I wonder what comes out of the other end?"
"Ha," said Babd. "Ha. Good one. "
"And what kind of brain do you find under the feathers?" said Orcus.